Rayo Family News

Bedtime routines have begun!

Tonight, after coming home from Thornburgs, we were determined to have our first honest-to-goodness bedtime. We started out with a bath, hung out a little bit in the tub, then hit Henry with his first bedtime story. We have tried a couple times in the last couple weeks to tell him a story, but he would get fussy or go to sleep or something like that. We were determined to get through the story this time, though, so we pushed ahead ...

We began with "Owl Babies", an old Thornburg favorite. Sarah's Mom had used her artistic license to change the three main characters to Sarah, James, and Jonathan. Coincidentally, her three kids' names. Anyhoo, Sarah performed a warm rendition of said book, and received critical acclaim for her tender portrayal of the mother owl. Actually, Henry started crying at the moment when the momma owl entered the story. We gutted it out, though, and finished up.

That didn't seem to be enough for our little scholar, so our second book was "The Monster at the End of This Book" with our furry pal Grover. This one went over pretty well also, with Henry making it through the entire book before starting to cue us that it was time to eat his midnight meal.

It is going to be interesting how we will thread Sarah's and my favorite childhood things into Henry's life. Who should read Grover books to him (she or I)? Is she going to get Grover's voice right? Who's childhood should be represented in the first book that's read to him? These things seemed trivial to me before, and they may still be, but they gave me pause this evening. Decisions like these will most likely be the easiest parenting decisions that we'll make, but they're still a bit tricky ...